May

May 7:

Family Nature Day at May-

woods

May 21-29:

International Environmen-

tal Service Learning —

Belize

May 23 — June 14:

Field Courses at May-

woods

June

Jun 6-8:

10th Annual Lilley Cornett

Woods Field Camp

In fall 2015, the Lilley Cornett Woods Research and Learning Center and Bunkhouse was completed and was opened for business. Thanks to the National Science Foundation and President Benson, these facilities will pro-vide a venue for researchers, facility and staff and community members to continue their investigations of the natural world in and around Lilley Cornett Woods. The Center has wet and dry laboratories and will facilitate studies for EKU faculty and other researchers that might otherwise not be possible. The dry laboratory provides teaching space for 24 students. The wet lab seats 12 and is outfitted with basic laboratory equipment. The adjacent housing, which will sleep 10, provides critically needed sleeping quarters. This has been a major obstacle for conducting research and bringing classes to this remote portion of Kentucky. Additionally, we are nearing the final stages of purchasing an adjacent property, which includes 80 acres and a home that sleeps 10–12.

The first reservations have already been made for the use of the facilities. The inaugural group will be the Expeditionary Learning Fellows, a group of teach-ers involved in a science professional learning experience in collaboration with the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative. Dr. Alice Jones’s ENV/GEO 325S, Environmental Land Use Planning class will be the first group to use the new bunkhouse. Her students will be collaborating with Hazard Community and Technical College students to help the Pathfinders of Perry County design and plan hiking trails near Hazard. Other scheduled users are EKU geology students and the recently NSF funded Research Experience for Undergradu-ates, Disturbance Ecology in Appalachia, beginning in summer 2017.

During the summer of 2015, we offered four Biology field courses based at Maywoods. Throughout the courses, investigations also took place Taylor Fork and Lilley Cornett Woods. We had students and professionals throughout the state and southeast region en-rolled. The courses were Wetland Design and Restoration Techniques, Field Botany, Field Ichthyology, and Ecology for Teachers. An integral part of the Wetland Design and Resto-ration Techniques course was helping to restore a historic wetland at Maywoods. Funding and work on the project was provided by the US Fish and Wildlife Services and the Am-phibian and Reptile Conservancy through the Sheltowee Environmental Education Coali-tion and Tom Biebighauser. The Ecology for Teachers class was also involved in a service learning project, in which they used lichen as bioindicators to monitor air quality in eastern Kentucky. This project was funded through an EKU Funded Scholarship Grant. The class took data at 4 different sites including, Maywoods and Lilley Cornett Woods. The data will be uploaded to the Hands on the Lands website. This summer, we are offering the following courses: Wetland Design and Restoration Techniques, Field Ornithology, Ecology for Teachers, and Wetland Assessment and Moni-toring. These courses again will make use of Taylor Fork, Maywoods and Lilley Cornett Woods as a living learning laboratory. Contact Stephen Richter (stephen.richter@eku.edu) for more information.

Summer Field Courses in the Natural Areas

Updates: Maywoods Environmental and Education Laboratory

We welcome Jacob Klein as the new attendant at Maywoods. Jake is a former intern and Recreation and Parks Administration EKU graduate. We are excited to have him on our staff. Maywoods had another wonderful year providing programming for school groups, serving EKU classes, student organizations and community groups. The summer courses were a success and included, Field Botany, Field Ichthyology, Wetland Design and Restora-tion, and Ecology for Teachers. During the Wetlands class the students participated in the restoration of an historic wetland in the field below dam.

The Natural Areas and Floracliff Nature Preserve collaborated to host a Bioblitz at May-woods in June. Scientists and volunteers were able to identify 344 different species of plants and animals—139 species of plants, 37 were new to list; 45 species of birds, 21 fish, 4 reptiles, 4 amphibians and 131 invertebrates. In April, the Natural Areas staff and volun-teers got together for a service project to remove bush honeysuckle from along the entrance to Maywoods. All the visible bush honeysuckle is gone and monitoring this invasive species will continue. New trail tag markers were installed on the Ridge trail last fall. This 4.2 mile trail is beginning to get more use.

Updates: Lilley Cornett Woods Appalachian Ecological Research Station

A variety of groups have used Lilley Cornett Woods for educational and research purposes this past year, including the Southeast Community and Technical College, Blufton Universi-ty, Radford University, and Whitesburg Elementary School. In collaboration with Regina Donour, Letcher County High School and Mitch Whitaker of the Letcher County 4H Exten-sion Office, we provided environmental education programs for 300 students from Letcher County High School in collaboration this past October. These students participated in water quality investigations, learned about raptor rehabilitation and of course, hiked in the old growth forest. Maintenance of the grounds at LCW is important. This past spring, our manager retired his old Ford 3000 Tractor and replaced it with a new Kubota L3301 Tractor.

Natural Areas Research Highlights

Student Grant in Aid Program

The EKU Division of Natural Areas is pleased to announce the availability of funding for students (both EKU and non-EKU), up to $500 plus free lodging if needed, to conduct research at one or more of EKU's natural areas as part of the study: Maywoods Envi-ronmental and Educational Laboratory, Lilley Cornett Woods Appalachian Ecological Research Station, and Taylor Fork Ecological Area. The deadline to apply is 23 March 2016. Guidelines for proposals and more information can be found at: http://naturalareas.eku.edu/student-grant-aid-program. To date, we have funded twelve re-search projects!

Projects funded during the 2015–16 academic year

Chelsea Perkins, undergraduate student Biological Sciences, “Fine-scale monitoring of running buffalo clover (Trifolium stoloniferum) restoration populations at Taylor Fork Ecological Area,” Mentor: Dr. Jennifer Koslow.

Lauren Childress, graduate student Biological Sciences, “Comparison of the application of two herbicides as a management strategy for running buffalo clover (Trifolium stoloniferum),” Mentor: Dr. Jennifer Koslow.

Lameace Hussain, undergraduate student Biological Sciences, “Amphibian composition of man-made vernal pools on the ridge tops of Maywoods Environmental and Educational Laboratory,” Mentor: Dr. Stephen Richter.

Dustin Brewer, graduate student Biological Sciences, “Characteristics, contexts, and possible functions of Blue Jay vocalizations,” Mentor: Dr. Gary Ritchison.

Ongoing Research Projects

Lilley Cornett Woods Appalachian Ecological Research Station Fine-scale factors influencing terrestrial amphibian diversity in a low-elevation old growth forest in central Appalachia, Alex Baecher & Dr. Stephen Richter Population ecology of Wehrle’s salamanders, Jake Hutton & Dr. Stephen Richter

Maywoods Environmental and Educational Laboratory Vascular Flora and Plant Communities of Maywoods Environmental and Educational Lab- oratory, Dr. Ralph Thompson, Berea College Herbarium Amphibian communities of ridge-top wetlands at Maywoods Environmental and Educa- tional Laboratory, Lameace Hussain & Dr. Stephen Richter Differences in tree regeneration between recently logged and undisturbed forest plots at Maywoods Environmental and Educational Laboratory Glen Kalisz, Dr. Brad Ruhfel, & Dr. Stephen Richter

Taylor Fork Ecological Area Vascular flora of Taylor Fork Ecological Area, Thomas McFadden & Dr. Brad Ruhfel Persistence and Variability of Snag Resources at Taylor Fork Ecological Area Caitlin Davis & Dr. Luke Dodd Development of a point-count approach to monitor bat diversity using an acoustic system at Taylor Fork Ecological Area, Victor Holbrook & Dr. Luke Dodd Monitoring small mammal and bird communities, Dr. David Brown & WLD 382 class Winter Ecology of Eastern Towhees, Megan Martin Identification and condition survey of Ash trees, Katelyn Welch Fine-scale monitoring of Running Buffalo Clover restoration populations of TFEA, Chelsea Perkins & Dr. Jennifer Koslow

Running Buffalo Clover restoration strategies, Drs. David Brown & Jennifer Koslow, Alexi Dart-Padover, Lauren Childress Restoration of Giant Cane in the Bluegrass Ecosystem, Dr. Julian Campbell & William Overbeck

The Center has the following 4 goals. 1. To provide environmental education training for the preservice and inservice .teachers

on a local and regional level. 2. To coordinate regional services with other institutions of higher learning. 3. To develop environmental programs and curriculum. 4. To conducts and evaluates research in environmental education, and assists the

community in understanding environmental issues. CEE operated with the assistance of 2 grants this year that helped the Center’s environ-mental education goals. They were:

NASA College Grant and Fellowship though Northern Kentucky University: In-creasing the Number of Qualified STEM Educators Through the Use of Interdis-ciplinary STEM Theme of the Environment $40,000. This 3 year grant employed 4 undergraduate science and elementary pre-service teachers, Abby Perry, Victoria Bristow, Athena Deaton and Jeremy Hacker to help with environmental education pro-gramming and development a math and physic modules. They also attended and pre-sented at the Kentucky Association for Environmental Education and Kentucky Sci-ence Teachers Associations annual meeting.

Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Watershed Service Learning Experiences for Middle School: $5,000. In April 2015, 240 sixth and seventh grade students from two different middle schools, Lincoln County Middle School in Stanford and Model Laboratory School in Richmond, KY completed two field trips with a service learning experience at Maywoods. These experiences took place over three different days. The service learning experience included, three different experiences tied directly to the fall field experiences:1) mitigating ATV damaged sites, 2) building a settling pond in an outflow creek and 3) developing posters on non-point source pollu-tion to distribute in the community.

The following grants are funded for 2015-16. Kentucky Environmental Education Council: Land Legacy and Learning 4: KUPEE’s Contribution $1,448. These funds are help-ing to support the inclusion of environmental education in the instruction of preservice teachers within the state. In addition, this funding will be used to develop a strategy for approaching the Kentucky Professional Standards Board to include environmental educa-tion as a part of a preservice teacher training program. KAEE and KUPEE: Addressing Climate Change Statewide Through Concerted Community-based Initiatives. $6,469 Solicit, select and support community pro-jects that utilize evidence-based strategies to increase public knowledge of climate change. Community grants will be distributed around the state and supported by the Center for Environmental Education (CEE) at the local postsecondary institution.

Updates: Taylor Fork Ecological Area

Taylor Fork Ecological Area continues to be used for research, class field trips, out-reach, and recreation. There were over a thousand visitors whom took close to 500 excursion through TFEA during the past year. In May, Natural Areas co-hosted a two-day birding workshop in partnership with Floracliff Nature Preserve. In the fall, students in a Wildlife Management course developed a draft Management Plan for the site. Thanks to Facility Services and Lilley Cornett Woods, Taylor Fork acquired a riding mower, a tractor and a bush hog, as well as barn space to keep them in.

Peer Reviewed Publications

* = student research funded by grant in aid program

Below are publications resulting from research conducted using Lilley Cornett Woods as a study area for regional research, 2014–present. To date, 44 pub-lications have resulted from research at LCW. McEwan, R. W., N. Pederson,

A. Cooper, R. Watts, J. Taylor and A. M. Hrus-ka. 2014. Fire and can-opy disturbance over 300 years in a central Appalachian old-growth deciduous forest. Ap-plied Vegetation Sci-ence 17:312–322.

Brown, D.B., and T. Weinkam.

2014. Predicting bird community changes to invasion of Hemlock Woolly Adelgid in Ken-tucky. Southeastern Naturalist 13:104–116.

Fox, J.F., and D.K. Martin.

2014. Sediment finger-printing for calibrating a soil erosion and sedi-ment yield model in mixed land use water-sheds. Journal of Hy-drologic Engineering ASCE 10.1061/(ASCE)HE.1943 5584.0001011.

Davis, J.G., J.I. Chapman, S.-

Y. Wu, and R.W. McEwan. 2015. Spatio-temporal dynamics of coarse woody debris in an old-growth temper-ate deciduous forest. Forest Science 61: 680–688.

Bourne, J., and S.C. Richter. In

review. Variation in salamander and insect communities as it re-lates to stream condi-tion in natural areas of southeastern Kentucky. Natural Areas Journal.